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Life with my little allergy duck

What I love about when I receive a medical files story, is how different they all are. How much they open my eyes and make me aware. It really does educate you about what others have to go through. I think this will resonate with a lot of people. I myself have a nut allergy, and have a best friend with a gluten intolerance. So far, we have been very lucky and Elijah does not seem to have any allergies. However, how would you cope if your child had some serious allergies? Allergies that would effect your day to day lives? Read the one and only allergy queen herself (she knows what she is talking about also suffering from multiple allergies) Ally the mama behind @lifewithmylittleduck tell their story.

From the moment I went into labour I knew our journey with Astrid would be special and challenging. The only thing was I didn't quite realise just how challenging it would be, I mean with me as a mum I should have guessed. Astrid was a good little baby and everything was so easy for us with her, from day one she was just a happy little baby gurgling and cooing away I mean it was pretty much perfect ( apart from the usual no sleeping factor but I expected that). She was a great feeder from the onset never had any troubles with breastfeeding her and it all seemed so perfect. I mean she was a bit sickie but most babies are at first whilst they learn the size of their stomach and Astrid was a greedy one. At around 12 days old Astrid started to get a severe case of colic or what at the time I thought was colic. We tried everything really but nothing seemed to help. It was Christmas time so I was eating a lot of things myself I shouldn't have been lots of chocolate, cream all the bad stuff, so my mum suggested that I should lay off those for a few days and it was as if a miracle had occurred and the colic had gone. Our little happy baby came back and it was all feeling rather perfect again.

But then things began to change again. We always had plenty of leaky nappies up to your shoulders jobs but I just thought this just be what all babies are like. At around 4 months I decided to take her the doctors as she was still being sick more times than I could count in a day, there response was "Babies are sick nothing to worry about", so I brushed it off and continued as I was with the no dairy and no gluten in my diet ( as im a coeliac so this was necessary for me). Shortly after this Astrid had her first allergic reaction hives absolutely everywhere it just seemed to spread like crazy I wasn't too sure what to do the first time, thank god for my mum really I was an absolute mess panicking like a crazy woman. We just gave her a shower and soothed her to sleep the best way I knew how the BOOBIEE!!. We thought this could most likely be a one off thing so continued as we had been. Each week they became more and more frequent doctors gave us the same answer "Babies are sensitive" , “Babies get sick” helpful as always it was definitely becoming a pattern.

Two more months passed and it was time for us to introduce some food we hadn't up until this point at the advice of the health visitors no food before 6 months and as she was thriving quite well on breastmilk I wasn't too worried. We began with the normal purees and just general fruit stuff this took time for Astrid to get used to it seemed even the simplest of foods didn't agree with her. Lots of sickie times and very pooey nappies, plenty of washing for mummy to do; you can never have enough clothes with a baby Astrid around. Slowly but surely we got there with the purees so we decided to move onto toast, rice cakes, general dinners we were having. Shortly after this Astrid’s face started to become very sore and red as it was summer time I first thought maybe the heat was bothering her as she did have some sores in her creases to, after 2 weeks it was no better so I thought why not let’s try the doctor. We were prescribed a steroid cream and sent away no help with what might be causing it or if there was anything we could do to help her.

At 9 months I went back to work and Astrid started nursery this was just horrible, anyone who has had to send their child to nursery with dietary requirements will sympathise I’m sure. Every week I was being called to go and collect her because she had a bad tummy trying to explain to them that she has just eaten something which she is intolerant to it’s a bloody baby room there is things Astrid can’t eat everywhere. This definitely made the whole going back to work thing stressful for the first two months at work I had to go home every week with Astrid. Her face was just getting worse and worse from being at nursery and things just weren’t getting better. Than it just got worse.When Astrid was around 10 months we had our first encounter with egg I stupidly didn't even think egg could be an issue and gave her the smallest amount of my wrap with mayonnaise in, I mean this piece was no bigger than my little finger nail, she didn't even eat it really. She was all fine than suddenly 10 minutes later in the middle of M&S she was sick everywhere and I mean everywhere. My first thought was oh god she must have a bug, we were staying with her Great Nan for the weekend so this made the whole process ten times more stressful. For the next 10 hours she was sick every half hour kept no feeds down and barely slept. That was definitely one of the most worrying nights of my tine with Astrid I couldn't help but think the worst I was constantly worried she had something terrible. After speaking to my mum it clicked it must be a food related problem, then I realised the only new thing she had eaten she had never had was egg I felt so stupid I mean I should have realised sooner. After that weekend I took her straight to the doctor explained it all then again was fobbed off I so angry. 10 months of continuous appointments and still nothing I arranged to see a different doctor who finally referred us to the allergy clinic. I was so happy to finally being acknowledged, our appointment letter came and I couldn’t believe it her appointment was on her first b’day it had taken us a whole year of her life to get to this point. I just remember sitting in the waiting room with her daddy not knowing what to expect we had our first skin prick test and I just remember Astrid getting nervous before we even sat down she hates doctors and always got nervous at every immunization she was so clued up to it all only needed to walk in the room and bang the tears would start. Skin prick test over with she definitely had an allergy to raw and cooked egg I was sort of relieved in a way that I knew we finally had an answer for all her problems. We then had a meeting with her allergy doctor and we were also told along with gluten, egg and dairy we should remove soya as children with a milk intolerance can be sensitive to this too, I mean even I was learning something there. I then met her dietician I just felt completely at ease she was the kindest nicest doctor I had ever met and so helpful and passionate still to this day I actually look forward to my appointments with her. She is an absolute godsend to the NHS I’m telling you it’s hard to find someone who cares so deeply about their job and each individual patient.

We had a great first birthday party even though Astrid couldn’t eat the cake as Nanny had preordered it so still had egg in it. But all in all things were going really good, apart from the problems with the nursery which never truly got resolved luckily she had the best key worker in baby room who was like a hawk and watched her every move making sure she didn’t eat anything she shouldn’t. As time went on her face went back to normal and she really started to become a happier little girl. Over the next year of Astrid’s life things just got better and better everything improved I mean we still have bad tummies and we still have the allergies and intolerance but for us these are manageable

From diagnosis till now we have only had two allergic reactions and I feel so privileged that it hasn’t been more. It has been a very long hard journey for us and was one of the reasons I wanted to start my blog and help other parents who struggled to get the support like I did. Those times when Astrid was having hives and being sick I just felt so helpless and alone when your sitting at home as a stay at home mum and your daughter has been sick for the 10th time and were not even past midday it can be very draining and lonely. So our journey continues with Astrid with hope that one day she will outgrow her allergies, and hoping I can help some parents out of the loneliness I felt on those long days and sleepless nights.

Love

Mummy Duck x

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